I have mentioned this opinion on this page before, and now it seems a good time to repeat it. Tuberville is NOT doing this because of abortion policies, or because he's "new." He's a useful idiot; a very useful idiot for trump. He's holding these promotions open because, if trump wins, trump gets to install loyalist in these critical positions. I understand this sounds like fear mongering, but at this point it seems pretty obvious; at least to me. A military filled with trump loyalists at the highest levels of command is THE most terrifying thing this country could ever face.
I don’t know if he consciously set out deciding that he wants to hold all these positions for Trump, but now it’s looking more and more like that could be a reason he continues. It’s very disturbing, and we need a way around it.
What I want to know is how ready and how able is our military, right now, to respond with highly effective, choreographed force to an international emergency?
You are absolutely right. Trump has stated an intent to install loyalists to all key positions if he is reelected so he doesn't have to deal with people questioning his policies. Last time it was judges. But he found that he needs loyalists in charge of the military and in all government leadership positions if he is to succeed in a second attempt to install himself as a dictator (or president for life as Xi puts it and Trump lauds him for.
I don't know whether or not this is Tuberville's motive (though I believe it is a realistic possibility). But regardless of Tuberville's intention, the impact will be the same, if Trump is re-elected. Yes, it is a terrifying prospect.
It certainly could be. Honestly, it's probably one factor on a long list. Republicans are "all of the above"-type fascists; they cause chaos not because they know exactly what the result will be, but because they know exactly what the result of abiding by actual democracy would be.
Agreed. And I thank you for continuing to bring this up. There is literally no reason not to take the lawful route if Tuber's concern is legality, with a court system stacked in his favor, at least at the Supreme Court level where it will end up. I was shocked to read this piece with no mention of this at all. The blockages going on in our govt are by design, part of the authoritarian handbook, and will allow quick enactment of Agenda 2025 should ANY republican win the presidential seat. This needs to be stated loud and clear and over and over so people get a true sense of what we're up against. Even an "appears to be" or "there's a possibility of" is better than no mention at all. This respectfulness and asleep at the wheel of democrats has allowed us to be sidelined by a long planned and cunning right wing system. We're in a fight! We need to act like it!
IMO Tumorville is a traitor and being paid by our enemies to do this, enemies within our country and without. I agree with you ChrisO, this is so dangerous.
I disagree that DT isn't capable of this. He immediately filled his whitehouse with loyalists and was coached to use similar strategies throughout his term. This is part of the issue. People need to consider the long planned cogs of this takeover, that have been slowly turning for years, to envision the end result and their goal. We can't afford to be naive and short sighted.
It is through communities like this where I think we can not feel alone and gain strength and resolve to make things right-it’s why I look forward to this every day. 👍🏻✌️
The Democrats have had 9 months to figure out a strategy, and place a spotlight on Republicans.
Hold a press conference with every former general, admiral, etc. willing to step forward to detail the danger of Republican inaction.
Empower military veterans as surrogates to travel to every red state district with a significant military base to hold rallies or give interviews to local news to inform the public.
The GOP needs to be painted as the anti-military force that they've become. Democrats have the money for an effective ad campaign.
It won't happen as long as Senate Democrats limit themselves to preaching to the choir on MSNBC, while right-wing media portrays Tuberville as a pro-life David against the establishment Goliath.
My idea was to buy billboards and signs around military bases and installations (ESPECIALLY in Alabama) that say, "Tuberville blocks military promotions", "Why does Tuberville hate our military?", things like that. And now we have great anti-Tub quotes from Repubs to add. Let the families of service members know exactly who is endangering their loved ones who serve.
Good idea, but given that Democrats have done nothing at all for 9 months, I have no faith in their ability to pivot from ineffective economic messaging to hard-hitting messaging attacking the GOP as anti-military, antidemocratic, anti-abortion, anti-public education religious extremists.
It's doesn't have to be the Dems. It's probably better if it's not. How much do billboard ads cost in Alabama? Let's find out, raise some $ and get it done.
I suppose the Pentagon could announce that it would start looking for ways to shift military bases away from states that restrict reproductive care so that the travel reimbursement policy becomes moot. I'm sure the red states wouldn't mind giving up their military bases and the revenue they bring. Let's start with Alabama.
There is a double standard with McConville re the Supreme Court (where he played a nasty game without consequences) and the military (where Jos McCarthy played a nasty game with negative (for him) consequences). McConville can be critical of Tuberville because he can claim there is nothing he can do about Tuberville.
Other than pull any GOP PAC funding from Tommy, I don't think there's really anything McConville can do. Tommy's just going to dig his heels in deeper, like a belligerent toddler.
So when the first of many American soldiers are killed in Syria or Lebanon, because they don’t have a qualified leader, can the Democrats call for hearings like the Benghazi ones and keep Tubberville on the stand for 12 hours explaining how what he did didn’t kill all those soldiers? And do it for days, weeks and months? Give Tubberville something else to do since apparently he has NOTHING else in his job description except to be an ignorant ass!
Televise it and put it on a loop along with video of the newest House speaker and the chaos on the floor of the house before the final vote? PLEASE?
Let the American people see the absolute chaos and destruction along with incompetence , cowardliness and fealty to an IDIOT that is now all that exists in the Republican Party!
One thing we want to be careful about is to hyper politicize things on our end for the sake of the politics. It seems an unfair fight, how they get to trash and mock the system, and we have to keep defending it. But that is where we are, sadly.
How is this not the same as the deal McCarthy made with the radicals to become speaker? Take a critical action in the senate, and create a rule that any one senator can pull the cord and bring the senate train to a crashing halt. Why was such a rule ever created? What benefit could it ever serve?
Why isn't everybody on both sides screaming to get rid of that stupid rule? The GOPs are clearly counting on the morality of the Dems keeping them from doing the same thing for four years the next time a GOP is in the WH.
Sadly Jay, the Republicans have already hyper politicized everything, and continue to spread that BS on a constant bases, and their message is spread a whole lot further and wider than the Democrats messaging.
The old expression about fighting fire with fire applies here I believe.
Historically, this kind of “exploding the diet” through the ability of one person to veto caused the downfall of Poland. I would look toward who is lining his pockets. Somehow it wouldn’t surprise to have a Moscow connection. Traitors gotta trait.
What harm does the hold on military promotions do? It gives incentive to the excellent company and field grade officers who are on the list, to get out of the military and enter the civilian job environment. The people who will leave are the good ones. They are the future colonels and generals who would have guided our military services competently into the future. The officers who don't care about promotions are the ones who aren't going to be promoted anyway because the aren't good enough. Once Sen Tuberville is gone, that's what we'll have left.
Is it possible that one of the goals of Tuberville is to actually throw the military command structure into chaos to neutralize it ahead of the '24 election? A dark thought but is it possible?
I don’t know how strategic a thinker he is. It remains to be seen. It would be hard and dangerous for any senator to plot a coup with all the investigations ongoing.
I’d also like to mention that it occurs to me that since Tuberville is a true MAGAT and is in full thrall to Trump, this could be a way to leave all these important positions open for Trump to place his supporters into those roles if he does win the next federal election and that would allow him to have complete control over the Armed Forces. The Republicans did that before with Judges, why not with the Armed Forces?
Or, is the third senator from Florida (he has no residence in Alabama) colluding with Putin to neutralize the US military in advance of a renewed Russian invasion of the Ukraine followed be incursions into Poland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, and Finland? Those countries have all been mentioned by ministerial level Russians in the recent past.
Well, I do know Tubby is a f**king idiot, and I wouldn't put it past him. HOWEVER - that scenario activates a full NATO response automatically, and I confidently predict the barriers will be torn down, the military and diplomatic positions will be filled in an afternoon to deal with that. And I do not believe Gospodin Poutine is stupid enough to invite that. That said, who really knows? These MFers be cray-cray.
Vote every single hold out out of office and take away their pay, retirement benefits and health benefits. I have too many family members and friends serving in the military who deserve better. They are fighting to defend tuberville's right to be a jackass and it infurates me no end.
"Schumer intends to bring the rule change vote to floor anyway, however, to show that Democrats are doing everything reasonable they can to unblock the jam, while Republicans are actually helping Tuberville maintain his blockade."
Good. "We need to not do anything because someday we'll be in the minority and we'll want this power" is not a message that will drive your voters to the polls.
"Someday [Dems will] be in the minority" is exactly the argument the Foghorn Leghorn cosplayer made. Every time Kennedy fake-drawls casual threats about maintaining decorum or tradition, I want to scream.
This is a great clarification of the situation; also you touch upon some key points that well amplify an excellent short analysis of the Republican Party as it currently has been operating for quite some time now as discussed by Jerry Taylor of the Niskanen Center as can be seen in the following quote:
"There are never enough purists to overcome Senate filibusters or override presidential vetoes. Republicans who respond by looking for compromise to marginally improve existing laws are savaged by ideological policemen for compromising on principle. Paralyzed by their inability to pass meaningful legislation, Republicans spend most of their time on “messaging” bills and resolutions that have zero chance of enactment.
Defensive operations, however, are made easier by the party’s adherence to doctrine. Ideological policemen keep potential defectors in line. Compromises aren’t necessary to hold the legislative chokepoints that allow small groups of ideologically united minorities to hold off legislative majorities. This likely helps to explain why the Left has had a more difficult time over the past several decades passing legislation to expand state power."
Follow the money. Who are Tuberville's major donors - public or dark money? What about all the military bases and personnel in his state? Are they OK w/ his antics? If Tuberville getting money from the Republican Party itself, can't the GOP cut off the donations?
These "holds" are not merely inconvenient, they are impacting every single service member. That includes my own son, even though he's just a junior naval officer. Holding the promotions of flag officers has a ripple effect beyond just making a bunch of already over worked people work multiple jobs.
It also gives pause to officers, such as my son, needing to make decisions regarding what to do once their obligations run out.
Oh, and they also have continue to wonder when they will get paid again after the continuing resolutions runs out, if the poo flingers in congress are allowed to get their way and shut everything down.
All that while they're putting their lives on the line for the rest of us.
Reading Jay's first class analysis of Sen. Tuberville's continuing hold on military promotions, brought to mind research I did some time ago, on Aaron Burr and his treason trial. I realize this is a stretch, but a number of former Republicans, Tuberville and MAGA Mike, among them, are preventing the US legislative body from functioning. Two weeks from today (11/03) the US Government will probably close as a result of their efforts.
Are the actions of these former Republicans being happily observed in Beijing and Moscow? Absolutely!! Are they commiting treason? Maybe. The 1/06/21 insurrection aimed at overturning a presidential election seems to satisfy Marshall's precondition of: "...a body of men actually assembled for the purpose of...."
Chief Justice John Marshall on the commission of treason (US Constit. ,Art III, Sect.3, Clause 1)
"On the contrary, if war be actually levied, that is, if a body of men be actually assembled for the purpose of effecting by force a treasonable purpose, all those who perform any part, however minute, or however remote from the scene of action, and who are actually leagued in the general conspiracy, are to be considered as traitor"
I have mentioned this opinion on this page before, and now it seems a good time to repeat it. Tuberville is NOT doing this because of abortion policies, or because he's "new." He's a useful idiot; a very useful idiot for trump. He's holding these promotions open because, if trump wins, trump gets to install loyalist in these critical positions. I understand this sounds like fear mongering, but at this point it seems pretty obvious; at least to me. A military filled with trump loyalists at the highest levels of command is THE most terrifying thing this country could ever face.
I don’t know if he consciously set out deciding that he wants to hold all these positions for Trump, but now it’s looking more and more like that could be a reason he continues. It’s very disturbing, and we need a way around it.
What I want to know is how ready and how able is our military, right now, to respond with highly effective, choreographed force to an international emergency?
No person should have the power to endanger us day after day for months on end.
Yes. Especially after Wray’s caution.
You are absolutely right. Trump has stated an intent to install loyalists to all key positions if he is reelected so he doesn't have to deal with people questioning his policies. Last time it was judges. But he found that he needs loyalists in charge of the military and in all government leadership positions if he is to succeed in a second attempt to install himself as a dictator (or president for life as Xi puts it and Trump lauds him for.
Correct.
I don't know whether or not this is Tuberville's motive (though I believe it is a realistic possibility). But regardless of Tuberville's intention, the impact will be the same, if Trump is re-elected. Yes, it is a terrifying prospect.
It certainly could be. Honestly, it's probably one factor on a long list. Republicans are "all of the above"-type fascists; they cause chaos not because they know exactly what the result will be, but because they know exactly what the result of abiding by actual democracy would be.
Agreed. And I thank you for continuing to bring this up. There is literally no reason not to take the lawful route if Tuber's concern is legality, with a court system stacked in his favor, at least at the Supreme Court level where it will end up. I was shocked to read this piece with no mention of this at all. The blockages going on in our govt are by design, part of the authoritarian handbook, and will allow quick enactment of Agenda 2025 should ANY republican win the presidential seat. This needs to be stated loud and clear and over and over so people get a true sense of what we're up against. Even an "appears to be" or "there's a possibility of" is better than no mention at all. This respectfulness and asleep at the wheel of democrats has allowed us to be sidelined by a long planned and cunning right wing system. We're in a fight! We need to act like it!
They continue their attack . I’m afraid people don’t see it or think this can’t be happening in our country but it is.
He referred to the House Speaker in quotations — ‘ Speaker’ wink wink.
I fear for the lives of our President and VP.
Tuberville has been selected by Trump to hamstring the military. Trump visited Alabama just some weeks ago and met with Tuberville.
My thoughts exactly! Taking a page from Mitch McConnel’s playbook with regards to Supreme Court justices.
IMO Tumorville is a traitor and being paid by our enemies to do this, enemies within our country and without. I agree with you ChrisO, this is so dangerous.
I've been thinking this myself.
Puppet Tuberville is following orders. He clearly isn't smart enough to figure out this technical block on his own. Question is, who is the puppeteer?
Good point. Certainly not DT. He’s not smart enough. Devious enough. Yes. But not smart enough.
I disagree that DT isn't capable of this. He immediately filled his whitehouse with loyalists and was coached to use similar strategies throughout his term. This is part of the issue. People need to consider the long planned cogs of this takeover, that have been slowly turning for years, to envision the end result and their goal. We can't afford to be naive and short sighted.
I understand your comment to be the right one.
This is the coup continued…
Disgraceful. So much for Republicans being pro-military. Tuberville has no business in our government. He's a traitor... it's all so exhausting. 🙄
The hard thing is, they WANT to exhaust us so that we give up because we’re tired of the dysfunction. We can’t let that happen though.
It is through communities like this where I think we can not feel alone and gain strength and resolve to make things right-it’s why I look forward to this every day. 👍🏻✌️
So many Congressman and Senators just stepping aside to these fascists — Romney, Cheney and today Ken Buck and another Senator.
How does this help?!
If only DC had even one Senator....
A traitor among so many others. Something is going to happen. It ties in with the 🤡 and classified docs. Scary 💩
Scary, for sure. And yet I'd bet 75% of Americans don't even know he's doing this. Also scary.
Exactly.
They rely on misinformation, propaganda and zero information.
People don’t know.
The Democrats have had 9 months to figure out a strategy, and place a spotlight on Republicans.
Hold a press conference with every former general, admiral, etc. willing to step forward to detail the danger of Republican inaction.
Empower military veterans as surrogates to travel to every red state district with a significant military base to hold rallies or give interviews to local news to inform the public.
The GOP needs to be painted as the anti-military force that they've become. Democrats have the money for an effective ad campaign.
It won't happen as long as Senate Democrats limit themselves to preaching to the choir on MSNBC, while right-wing media portrays Tuberville as a pro-life David against the establishment Goliath.
May I quote you in letters to my senators (Murray and Cantwell)?
Of course...thank you.
My idea was to buy billboards and signs around military bases and installations (ESPECIALLY in Alabama) that say, "Tuberville blocks military promotions", "Why does Tuberville hate our military?", things like that. And now we have great anti-Tub quotes from Repubs to add. Let the families of service members know exactly who is endangering their loved ones who serve.
Good idea, but given that Democrats have done nothing at all for 9 months, I have no faith in their ability to pivot from ineffective economic messaging to hard-hitting messaging attacking the GOP as anti-military, antidemocratic, anti-abortion, anti-public education religious extremists.
It's doesn't have to be the Dems. It's probably better if it's not. How much do billboard ads cost in Alabama? Let's find out, raise some $ and get it done.
You can contribute to VoteVets...they've been targeting Tuberville fairly aggressively and donations are much needed.
They fail to respond.
I suppose the Pentagon could announce that it would start looking for ways to shift military bases away from states that restrict reproductive care so that the travel reimbursement policy becomes moot. I'm sure the red states wouldn't mind giving up their military bases and the revenue they bring. Let's start with Alabama.
I can’t help but think the loss of SpaceForce in AL was due to Tuberville. They say it wasn’t, but…
Money is their primary motivating factor (well, power, but money IS power.) This would be the worst possible thing we could do to them.
Yup. But them in their money belts
Let's go, Brandon.
Great idea
If even one service person dies due to a lack of a commanding officer, Tuberville needs to be charged as an accessory.
That’s got a good rhetorical feel to it, but of course we can’t ever do that in a court.
Tuberville is pulling a McConnell, holding the positions open so Trump can put loyalists in position to support his coup.
It does remind me of the justices battle.
There is a double standard with McConville re the Supreme Court (where he played a nasty game without consequences) and the military (where Jos McCarthy played a nasty game with negative (for him) consequences). McConville can be critical of Tuberville because he can claim there is nothing he can do about Tuberville.
Other than pull any GOP PAC funding from Tommy, I don't think there's really anything McConville can do. Tommy's just going to dig his heels in deeper, like a belligerent toddler.
So when the first of many American soldiers are killed in Syria or Lebanon, because they don’t have a qualified leader, can the Democrats call for hearings like the Benghazi ones and keep Tubberville on the stand for 12 hours explaining how what he did didn’t kill all those soldiers? And do it for days, weeks and months? Give Tubberville something else to do since apparently he has NOTHING else in his job description except to be an ignorant ass!
Televise it and put it on a loop along with video of the newest House speaker and the chaos on the floor of the house before the final vote? PLEASE?
Let the American people see the absolute chaos and destruction along with incompetence , cowardliness and fealty to an IDIOT that is now all that exists in the Republican Party!
One thing we want to be careful about is to hyper politicize things on our end for the sake of the politics. It seems an unfair fight, how they get to trash and mock the system, and we have to keep defending it. But that is where we are, sadly.
How is this not the same as the deal McCarthy made with the radicals to become speaker? Take a critical action in the senate, and create a rule that any one senator can pull the cord and bring the senate train to a crashing halt. Why was such a rule ever created? What benefit could it ever serve?
Why isn't everybody on both sides screaming to get rid of that stupid rule? The GOPs are clearly counting on the morality of the Dems keeping them from doing the same thing for four years the next time a GOP is in the WH.
Sadly Jay, the Republicans have already hyper politicized everything, and continue to spread that BS on a constant bases, and their message is spread a whole lot further and wider than the Democrats messaging.
The old expression about fighting fire with fire applies here I believe.
Historically, this kind of “exploding the diet” through the ability of one person to veto caused the downfall of Poland. I would look toward who is lining his pockets. Somehow it wouldn’t surprise to have a Moscow connection. Traitors gotta trait.
What harm does the hold on military promotions do? It gives incentive to the excellent company and field grade officers who are on the list, to get out of the military and enter the civilian job environment. The people who will leave are the good ones. They are the future colonels and generals who would have guided our military services competently into the future. The officers who don't care about promotions are the ones who aren't going to be promoted anyway because the aren't good enough. Once Sen Tuberville is gone, that's what we'll have left.
Is it possible that one of the goals of Tuberville is to actually throw the military command structure into chaos to neutralize it ahead of the '24 election? A dark thought but is it possible?
I don’t know how strategic a thinker he is. It remains to be seen. It would be hard and dangerous for any senator to plot a coup with all the investigations ongoing.
I’d also like to mention that it occurs to me that since Tuberville is a true MAGAT and is in full thrall to Trump, this could be a way to leave all these important positions open for Trump to place his supporters into those roles if he does win the next federal election and that would allow him to have complete control over the Armed Forces. The Republicans did that before with Judges, why not with the Armed Forces?
Exactly. If you're familiar with Project 2025 you'll see exactly how this will play out.
This is it.
I agree, but it is a nagging doubt that groundwork is being done for "the next time."
Or, is the third senator from Florida (he has no residence in Alabama) colluding with Putin to neutralize the US military in advance of a renewed Russian invasion of the Ukraine followed be incursions into Poland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, and Finland? Those countries have all been mentioned by ministerial level Russians in the recent past.
Well, I do know Tubby is a f**king idiot, and I wouldn't put it past him. HOWEVER - that scenario activates a full NATO response automatically, and I confidently predict the barriers will be torn down, the military and diplomatic positions will be filled in an afternoon to deal with that. And I do not believe Gospodin Poutine is stupid enough to invite that. That said, who really knows? These MFers be cray-cray.
I hope your crystal ball is better than mine ‘cause I don’t like what mine looks like at all. More like it’s obsidian than crystal.
Exactly what he’s doing. The vacancies are being held for Trump to fill.
After coup II
Vote every single hold out out of office and take away their pay, retirement benefits and health benefits. I have too many family members and friends serving in the military who deserve better. They are fighting to defend tuberville's right to be a jackass and it infurates me no end.
"Schumer intends to bring the rule change vote to floor anyway, however, to show that Democrats are doing everything reasonable they can to unblock the jam, while Republicans are actually helping Tuberville maintain his blockade."
Good. "We need to not do anything because someday we'll be in the minority and we'll want this power" is not a message that will drive your voters to the polls.
"Someday [Dems will] be in the minority" is exactly the argument the Foghorn Leghorn cosplayer made. Every time Kennedy fake-drawls casual threats about maintaining decorum or tradition, I want to scream.
This is a great clarification of the situation; also you touch upon some key points that well amplify an excellent short analysis of the Republican Party as it currently has been operating for quite some time now as discussed by Jerry Taylor of the Niskanen Center as can be seen in the following quote:
"There are never enough purists to overcome Senate filibusters or override presidential vetoes. Republicans who respond by looking for compromise to marginally improve existing laws are savaged by ideological policemen for compromising on principle. Paralyzed by their inability to pass meaningful legislation, Republicans spend most of their time on “messaging” bills and resolutions that have zero chance of enactment.
Defensive operations, however, are made easier by the party’s adherence to doctrine. Ideological policemen keep potential defectors in line. Compromises aren’t necessary to hold the legislative chokepoints that allow small groups of ideologically united minorities to hold off legislative majorities. This likely helps to explain why the Left has had a more difficult time over the past several decades passing legislation to expand state power."
https://www.niskanencenter.org/are-republicans-the-party-of-the-status-quo/
Follow the money. Who are Tuberville's major donors - public or dark money? What about all the military bases and personnel in his state? Are they OK w/ his antics? If Tuberville getting money from the Republican Party itself, can't the GOP cut off the donations?
The evilTuber doesn't even care enough about his state to live there. You think he gives a damn about his constituents?
These "holds" are not merely inconvenient, they are impacting every single service member. That includes my own son, even though he's just a junior naval officer. Holding the promotions of flag officers has a ripple effect beyond just making a bunch of already over worked people work multiple jobs.
It also gives pause to officers, such as my son, needing to make decisions regarding what to do once their obligations run out.
Oh, and they also have continue to wonder when they will get paid again after the continuing resolutions runs out, if the poo flingers in congress are allowed to get their way and shut everything down.
All that while they're putting their lives on the line for the rest of us.
Reading Jay's first class analysis of Sen. Tuberville's continuing hold on military promotions, brought to mind research I did some time ago, on Aaron Burr and his treason trial. I realize this is a stretch, but a number of former Republicans, Tuberville and MAGA Mike, among them, are preventing the US legislative body from functioning. Two weeks from today (11/03) the US Government will probably close as a result of their efforts.
Are the actions of these former Republicans being happily observed in Beijing and Moscow? Absolutely!! Are they commiting treason? Maybe. The 1/06/21 insurrection aimed at overturning a presidential election seems to satisfy Marshall's precondition of: "...a body of men actually assembled for the purpose of...."
Chief Justice John Marshall on the commission of treason (US Constit. ,Art III, Sect.3, Clause 1)
"On the contrary, if war be actually levied, that is, if a body of men be actually assembled for the purpose of effecting by force a treasonable purpose, all those who perform any part, however minute, or however remote from the scene of action, and who are actually leagued in the general conspiracy, are to be considered as traitor"